


Crumbling Tomb and Open Grave

by The_Captain



Series: Dragonborn Mera [1]
Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Angst, Dragons, Helgen (Elder Scrolls), Mera (dragonborn OC), Skyrim Main Quest, Skyrim opening scene, Some Graphic Descriptions of Violence, The violence isn't so bad, but it's a little gory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-18 18:55:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28622919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Captain/pseuds/The_Captain
Summary: Helgen lies burning behind her as Mera bursts desperately out of the crumbling remains of the dungeons there. Wide-eyed and trembling, she can only cower when Ralof says to take cover and a thing of nightmares flies overhead.orAn exploration of Helgen's carnage and how it affected my dragonborn Mera.
Series: Dragonborn Mera [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2097426
Comments: 5
Kudos: 10





	Crumbling Tomb and Open Grave

**Author's Note:**

> This has been on my mind for a very long time. It was written quickly, with no real editing, so sorry about that.

There was light ahead of them. The mouth of a cave. 

_ A man -- A soldier or a captive, too hard to tell -- shrieks. He screams, arms flailing, running, hair, armor, flesh set aflame. The scent mingles with that of burning timber and ash.  _

Mera scrambled desperately, falling up the incline. She didn’t stop to get up. Instead, she dug her fingers into the dirt and stone and climbed like an animal on all fours until the momentum of it had her back on her feet. She could almost feel the breeze on her skin. 

_ Follow. Run. Another scream as a soldier is lifted into the air. The sound of crumbling buildings. The wet squelch of someone being carved into a torn open. The door to the keep is so near, and the soldier presses her on _ .

Stopping abruptly, the word feels too bright, too harsh, too cold and too real. It’s an assault on battle sharpened senses. Eyes wide with adrenaline, hands shaking and blood racing, Mera took in heaving breaths from her exertion. But they weren’t quite safe yet. 

“Get down!” Ralof hissed as loudly as he dared too and ducked behind a rock. 

_ “Quickly, this way! Come on!” The man from the cart calls to her. Mera looks between him and the soldier and doesn’t really think. One calls her friend, the other calls her prisoner. There isn’t much of a choice.  _

Unthinking, acting on auto pilot, Mera hit the ground bodily. She didn’t want to look up, didn’t want to see what they were hiding from, didn’t want to catch the moment that It spotted them and came down with claws like swords and teeth like daggers to take two more victims. But she couldn’t help herself. 

She opened her eyes just in time to see wings as black as midnight, strong enough to create gusts that disturbed the grass and her hair even from this distance, soaring overhead and lifting up into the otherwise clear sky. It would have been a beautiful day. 

“We need to… we need to warn someone! A dragon…!” Ralof’s voice sounded strange, and he continued to talk, as if he was trying to rationalize what just happened.

_ Swinging swords, clashing metal. Panic. The soldiers won’t listen. They don’t want to work together -- why can’t they work together? They all need to get out, to escape, but no, this feud runs too deep for that. Mera kills men she harbors no ill will against just for the chance to breathe clean air once more. The dungeon crumbles around them, walls shaking, stones falling to the floor. The corpses will be buried here, hidden from the divines. She and Ralof must press on.  _

Ralof was saying… something. Mera couldn’t hear him. Well, she could  _ hear  _ him, but the words weren’t landing in her ears the way they ought to. Instead, all she heard was a dull ringing and the sound of her own heart. Her eyes were fixed on her blood-stained, trembling hands. So much blood. 

_ Her sword slices into someone’s neck and gets stuck when it hits cracking bones. Blood sprays as she yanks it free and swings it wildly to the side, cutting into another’s leg.  _

Without looking she knew it's everywhere. On her face, in her light-colored hair. Ash that fell from the sky like snow, blowing with the wind from Helgen, stuck to the wet spots and muddles with the red. 

_ She sees the executioner’s axe, ready to come down and remove her head. But then the dragon comes.  _

The dragon. 

Mera tried to get to her feet, using her still shaking hands to push her up off the ground, but her body lurched. Her muscles tensed. Bile climbed up her throat and she heaved painfully, empting what little there was in her stomach onto the cold stones on the ground. 

“By the nine…” a tired voice said. She felt a hand on her shoulder, unsure but supportive and her eyes skewer tightly shut. “Easy there, soldier,” Ralof said. 

It took her a minute to compose herself before Mera was able to nod her head, physically shaking away the panic that still threatened to rise up inside of her. Taking shaking, but even breaths she picked herself up off her feet and looked to Ralof.

“Your first battle, then?” His voice was heavy with sympathy. 

The question made her mind fall completely blank. 

Was it truly her first? 

“I… I don’t know.” Her voice shook terribly, and Mera realized she’d hardly said more than a few words since waking up in the cart, wide-eyed and afraid. But before that? Before…? “I don’t remember!” 

Ralof gave her a pitying look. He claps her on the shoulder once, and, rather than asking follow up questions, gestures ahead. “We need to go. Now. Someone has to warn Riverwood of the attack, and we might be the only ones who made it out alive.” His voice was grave as he looked back at the cave, thinking of what they had left behind. 

_ The sky, raining fire-- _

_ An earth-shattering roar --- _

_ Arrows loosed, not hitting their mark ---  _

_ Crumbling stone, like it’s nothing but pebbles --  _

_ Black wings. Black scales. Red eyes that burn -- _

_ And nothing. Nothing from before. _

Mera only nodded. She didn’t care where they went. She just wanted to get away from the entrance to this crumbling tomb and open grave the dragon left behind. Dazed, she took her first real step into Skyrim, unable to anything else but follow the man in front of her and think of the heavy blade that hung at her hip. The further she could get from this place, the more she would remember, surely. But even that didn’t matter. As long as she never had to see that dragon again. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! I hope you enjoyed this little taste of Mera's very first day in Skyrim. I might turn this into a mini series of similar fics, either featuring other encounters with dragons or other content involving her and Helgen, but I'm not sure. 
> 
> Please let me know what you think of this in the comments. It really does fuel me and keep me writing when people have nice things to say.  
> If you like Mera, you can read more about her in other fics I've posted, too!  
> As always, if you'd like to chat you can find me at paar-pahlok.tumblr.com


End file.
